While Train Fever sounds like a sickness that makes you think you’re a locomotive, it’s actually a crowd-funded transport sim inspired by Transport Tycoon. That’s probably a relief, if you were worried about being struck by a new and bewildering illness.
Instead of getting you cooped up in bed, making train noises, Train Fever gives you a transport empire to manage, either in the Industrial Age or the modern day. It’s due to launch on Steam on Friday.
My experience with trains is mostly drunken, squeezing into the last train home on Saturday night as my fellow passengers sing off-key or vomit all over themselves. I doubt there will be much of that in Train Fever, but that’s probably for the best.
What it does have is procedurally generated landscapes, waiting to be carved up with tracks. Rail networks can be spread everywhere, through mountains, across rivers, not restricted by grids. And there’s the business to manage, as well, with business-like things such as rolling stock and the development of infrastructure – stuff that baffles my perpetually adolescent mind.
Train Fever is 10 percent off on Steam until September 5th.